The Values Advantage: Communities of Practice Inside Out Brian P

The Values Advantage:
Communities of Practice Inside Out
Brian P. Hall
HP Seminar
April 25 2003
The twenty-first century is going to be about creating pathways to a sustainable
Future. Creating a shared understanding of what data, information,
knowledge, and wisdom mean to us, and how they interrelate to enable
us to define and move along those pathways. This means applying a
model of knowledge architecture from the position of values, principles
and beliefs which will allow us to evolve to a deeper understanding of
what a sustainable future could mean to us and how we can pursue it.
Prasad Kaipa, 1999
Communities of practice are the shop floor of human capital, the place where the stuff
gets made. Brook Manville, Director of Knowledge Management at McKinsey & Co.,
defines a community of practice thus: "A group of people who are informally bound to
one another by exposure to a common class of problem." Most of us belong to more than
one, and not just on the job: the management team, the engineers, some in your company
and some not.
The Invisible Key to Success, Fortune Magazine, August 5, 1996, Thomas A. Stewart
Brief: All modern companies are about Knowledge Creation. Critical to the agility,
productivity and creativity of communities of practice are the human relationships that
hold them together. The more productive and agile the group, the more this translates into
value for the company. What is not always understood is that human relationships are
under pinned by values priorities that can make or break the capability of the community
of practice. The seminar will examine how values and values measurement can improve
personal relationships, group effectiveness and customer sensitivity. Values and
employee behavior as internal branding will also be discussed.
Introduction: Knowledge and Community
This paper is set within the context of knowledge management and communities of
practice. The two are intricately connected. They are bound together by human
relationships. It is the relationships between people that make any organization succeed
or fail. These relationships are held together by the values people hold in common this
is the Values advantage.
When we look at the emergence of human community we note several interesting
breaking points. First as intelligent reflective beings we are brand new in the history of
evolution. Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. About 100,000 years ago we were more
animal that human, primarily nomadic and communicating when necessary for mutual
survival. See diagram: Phases of Human evolution. This Phase I experience came with a
limited and dominant set of values, such as self-preservation and survival.
Phases of Human Evolution
Phases
ERA
Phase I
NOMADIC
PERIOD
100,000 years
Phase II
Phase III
Phase IV
FARMING TO KNOWLEDGE & GLOBAL
CITY STATE
SCIENTIFIC
PARTNERING
PERIOD
ERA
7,000-500 years
500-present
Present- Future
Self Preservation Family
Values Security
Heirarchy
Survival
Communication
(wiriting/books)
2
Knowledge/Insight
Listening/Trust
Search/Meaning
Human dignity
Interdependence
Truth
Empowerment
Human Rights
About 10,000 years ago in the Middle East, in what is now Iraq and Israel, a new form of
grain appeared (Bronowski). Rather than sprouting seed that would blow across the
plains producing a grass-like effect, the new grain required planting by human hands, and
produced the edible product we are aware of today.
The consequence was that the nomad could stop wandering the globe, remain in one
place as a community and farm. Farming implied living and working in one location,
changing the nature of relationships and human organization. By 5000 years ago
substantial communities appeared creating cities and Kings. The city and the city state
appeared and a new possibility for human relationships occurred. Shared information
now became a natural part of living together. Highly developed language and a way of
transferring knowledge from one generation to another became essential. The Phase II
experience began to emerge and remained influential until 500 years ago.
At first, written language was limited to accounting systems for recording property and
wealth of the privileged royalty and a few merchants. Language as we understand it
came much later after much experimentation. However, about 2,800 years ago the
Greeks invented a simple language of 26 letters that included all the consonants and
vowels
ancestor to modern English via Latin. This was a magnificent accomplishment
making literature, democratic learning, and cross-generational knowledge transference
through libraries, letters and books all possible. It was the springboard to the modern era.
Just 1000 years ago hoards of monks transferred knowledge by arduously copying all the
manuscripts they could find, Eventually, barely 400 years ago printing presses were
invented, making newspapers, and knowledge through thousands of books available to
those who could afford to buy them. The Phase III experience was being born.
COPY EXACTLY
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Knowledge brings power. Hence writing brings power to modern society, by making it
possible to transmit knowledge with far greater accuracy and far greater quantity and
detail, from more distant lands, and more remote times. Jared Diamond, (p.215) 1998.
About 20 years ago Alvin Toffler, in a groundbreaking book called Future Shock
(1970), pointed out we were in the knowledge era. He noted that all of the knowledge
that humanity had accumulated from civilization s first records up to 1900 was doubled
by 1960 and would be doubled every 10 years after that. Of course, what was not clear is
what knowledge was
was it wisdom or simply masses of data and information that we
need to sort through. What was clear is that we were now well under the influence of the
knowledge era.
The Group Dynamic Connection
The last half of the twentieth century added another dimension to the picture. One of the
most researched and understood social realities is the small group. The study of group
dynamics and its invasion into psychotherapy, sensitivity training, encounter groups and
high performance teams entered into our consciousness between 1945 and the 1980s.
What we learned is that the quality of the relationships of individuals in the group alter
the output of the group. In fact what was discovered is that the higher the interaction
quality within the group the greater was individual and group learning about itself and
whatever issue they were exploring.
But something additional was going on in the last 25 years that would reshape how we
think about knowledge. Parts of the society were entering into the Phase IV Experience.
Several factors were beginning to reshape how people relate to one another forever:
Satellite technology and its effect on media, made global events immediate and visual
through modern television. Suddenly the majority of human persons witness
suffering, joy and tragedy as it happens anywhere anytime. In addition, mobile
telephone technology made local and global communication more immediate and
direct on a one-to-one basis.
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Advances in our understanding of human psychology and intimacy in communication
increased expectation of equality, partnering, marriage and teamwork. A new
benchmark was set for many around corporate ethics, honesty, transparency and
cross-cultural interpersonal communication. All these interpersonal factors have
changed the way we view relationships.
The emergence of the personal transportable computers in the early 1980s and the
Internet within the last ten years took all this into another dimension. Now you can
talk to anyone, anyplace, one-on-one and even in chat rooms and teams. Even
national boundaries, let alone diverse culture, are transcended in this new reality.
Communities of practice became virtually possible.
The twenty-first century trend is smarter together. Smarter teams are the cells of larger
intelligently networked organizations. Ignite intelligence and we change the world.
(Introduction to Virtual Teams. J Lipnack and J Stamps. 2000)
In 1995 Inkujiro Nonanka and Hirotaka Takeuchi wrote an important book that gave the
new movement of knowledge management fresh impetus in a work called The
Knowledge-Creating Company. They pulled all of these trends together, connecting the
community of practice with the knowledge-creation experience as follows:
In a strict sense, knowledge is only created by individuals. An organization cannot
create knowledge without individuals. The organization supports creative individuals or
provides contexts for them to create knowledge. Organizational knowledge creation,
therefore, should be understood as a process that organizationally amplifies the
knowledge created by individuals and crystallizes it as a part of the knowledge network
of the organization. This process takes place within an expanding community of
interaction (community of practice), which crosses intra- and inter-organizational level
and boundaries. (1995, p50.)
In conclusion, knowledge emerges from individuals, but individuals in interaction with
one another, in communities of practice. Communities of practice are groups of people
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minimally 2 and a maximum of 25 people for optimal performance, who share a
common concern, and purpose, and who deepen their understanding and knowledge of
this by interacting on an ongoing basis either face to face or virtually.
However, what became rapidly evident to Nonanka, Takeuchi and others is that
knowledge management can mean many things, from data sharing and scheduling tasks
at one end of the scale to creating new ideas and solutions or discovering new
technologies at the other end of the scale. So for them the critical issue is Knowledge
Creation it is this aspect of knowledge management that will make a company like HP
sustainable and ahead of the competition. What has become evident is that the quality of
knowledge creation, and even its occurrence in the first place, depends on the quality of
the community of practice. This is the missing third dimension. The diagram The
Knowledge Creation Triangle illustrates this point.
The Knowledge Creation Triangle
Knowledge Product
Values
Relationships
Communities of Practice
At a practical level there appears to be three dimensions of knowledge creation:
1. The quality of relationship underpinned by appropriate values. The explicit
values orientation -- a values set that builds integrity and cohesion among the
members of the community.
2. The focus of the community of practice around the values held in common by
the group.
3. The explicit knowledge product or solution that evolves from the community
of practice.
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What must be understood is that all human relationships are underpinned by values.
Values hold any human relationship together, whether it is a marriage or a community of
practice. The values determine the quality of the relationship and what the outcome of
the relationships will be.
The Values-to-Value Connection
Knowledge management can imply simple sharing of information through an IT network at one
end of the scale and Knowledge Creation at the other end. However, in the long run it is
Knowledge Creation that really matters. It is new knowledge that flows from a community of
practice, producing new ideas, new products and new solutions that gives the company the
competitive edge and leverages it into the future.
Values Creating Value
Personal
Values
Meaning
Valuing
Building
Relationships
Teams
ValueAdded
Knowledge
Creation
Working Together
Knowledge
In the diagram: Values Creating Value we see the Values-to-Value chain. 1.) The lefthand side of the diagram begins with the individual. At the outset all knowledge flows
from individuals and is determined by their values priorities, the values that give meaning
to that individual s activity and work. 2.) Teams and communities of practice are based
on relationships that are built through a common values system. When this is productive
and the appropriate values are in place the value added becomes the creation of new
knowledge, which 3.) in turn increases the values of the firm. However, the difficulty is
that our values are 90% unconscious. So it is when they are made explicit that the
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learning, the relationships become more meaningful. The way this occurs is though
values measurement.
Values, Measurement, and Personal Phases of Evolution
What writers like Paulo Freire understood and what I discovered over and over again in
30 years of research is that human values are embedded in the language, motivating and
driving our behavior. Altogether there are 125 values that provide the basis for a
technology that measures those values and makes them explicit. Corporate culture is
human and therefore flows from a set of relationships -- the relationships that form the
environment from which all decisions flow, including ethical and moral choices. Why?
Because all relationships, conscious or not, ARE UNDERPINNED BY VALUES
PRIORITIES HELD IN COMMON. It is the collective priorities that form the basis for
all decision making -- it is that simple. What is interesting is that values are measurable
and so, by extension, is the capacity and efficiency of a team or group.
The diagram: What Values Are clarifies the relationship between values and behavior.
Values are priorities that we have that underpin our behavior our emotions, beliefs,
ideas and decision making.
These external expressions all flow from values each of us
has. This value system is critical because it is what gives meaning to our lives -- it is
what energizes us and empowers us through the stories we tell.
What Values Are
The Individual
Ideas
Emotions
VALUES
Behavior
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Our internal values cluster as priorities and form our attitudes and beliefs. In the
following table there are two columns of five values
the same five values but in a
different priority order. Clearly the beliefs of a person in column A are different from
those of column B even though they have the same values. The difference is in the
priorities.
Column A
Column B
Family/Belonging
Education
Security
Self Competence
Economics/Success
Economcs/Success
Self Competence
Family/Belonging
Education
Security
Column A has priority beliefs around Family and its Security and financial sucess, where
Education is the consequence or prize. Column B is quite different and has a focus on
Education and Competence as a basis for the Security of the family. The cause and effect
in both columns is different. One column or person is not more important than the other
simply an expression of two sets of beliefs based on different values priorities.
We are usually aware of what some of our beliefs are, but not what the values are that
underpin them. We say therefore that our values are tacit or partly hidden. Yet at the
same time our values drive our lives. All relationships, personal and team, are based on a
minimal set of commonly held values priorities. Since values priorities are measurable,
they are the glue that facilitates creative relationships. Therefore, values measurment is
very important because it makes our priority values explicit and puts us in control of our
decision-making processes.
Measurement
A ten-year development and validity process yielded two types of values measurement
tools used with individuals and communities of practice:
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1. Individual Reports. These are reports that an individual receives after completing a
125-item questionnaire. The person sees what his or her values are, in priority order,
and what the implication is for his or her leadership and personal development.
Several thousand skills are coded to the values, allowing a person to convert the
values into specific capabilities.
2. Group Reports. These are reports on the value priorities of small or large groups.
Group reports are used in a wide range of circumstances from team development to
mergers analysis.
3. Finally a composite of all these measures is used for team assessment and
development.
When a person in leadership becomes explicitly aware of what their values priorities are,
and what the values are of a group or team they work with, this increases their awareness
about who they are and how they are different from others. This in turn increases their
confidence to make more decisions even when the risks are greater.
Furthermore, values and the evolution of a team as a knowledge creation entity are
connected. That is to say there is a relationship between the maturity of person on a team
and the level of knowledge creation they can accomplish. A key component to
understanding this dilemma is how values evolve.
The Values Connection
At the beginning of the paper we talked about how human beings have evolved over the
last 100,000 years through four phases. This same journey occurs for each individual,
altering the way they communicate, understand knowledge and what values drive their
day-to-day behavior. After the 125 values had been unearthed in the early 1980s, it
became clear that the values clustered into distinct developmental levels or phases for
each individual.
The Diagram Phases of Evolution shows how each Phase reflects its own world view,
and illustrates how knowledge is understood and what the values are that underpin this
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reality. The staggering implication is that as a people mature in their values so their
world view alters. That is, their perception of the world and, critically, how they view
knowledge and decision making, are developmentally determined.
Phases of Evolution, Knowledge and Values
4. Knowledge
as Understanding and Wisdom as practical know-how in a global context.
Relationships are collaborative, forming partnerships to create new solutions and co-equal
alliances
COLLABORATIVE PARTNERING SOLUTIONS
Learning & Way of Relating to
Learning & Way of Relating
3. Knowledge is Understanding
information adapting it in
flexible ways. Relationship is focused on tailored
solutions. Listening adaptively is the criteria.
CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS
2.
Knowledge is Information:
Relationship are Known & un-ambiguous
PRE PACKAGEDSOLUTION
1. Knowledge is Data
Relationship is
Òsingle Solution Ó
TRANSACTIONAL
SOLUTIONS
Profit
Survival
Self Preservation
Self Worth
Competence
Peer Support
Admin./Control
Management
Economics/success
PHASE I
Survival
PHASE II
Belonging
Learning
Integration
Knowledge/Insight
Empathy
Sharing/Listening
Trust
Decision/Initiation
Stewardship
Collaboration
Community/support
Mission Objectives
PHASE III
Self Initating
Truth/Wisdom
Teaming
Synergy
Interdependence
Empowerment
Human Rights
Convivial Technology
Macro-economics
PHASE IV
Interdependence
1. In Phase I the World View is one of Survival, with values like Profit and Self
Preservation and Security. (See Hall-Tonna Map 2002 in the Appendix for a full list
of the values.) Knowledge is simply data, where the community of practice would
function at a transactional level only for simple task assignment and scheduling.
Relationships are seen as transactional only I give you what you expect and in
return you give me what is due to me. Relationships are very limited with very little
personal sharing or trust.
2. In Phase II the world view is doing what is necessary to belong to the group.
Knowledge is packets of data or information presented as packaged solutions. The
team functions, by applying past practices and experience to solve new problems. The
person is not going to speak up in a group except on issues they feel very secure
about. This person would listen to a customer s needs and try to find the right product
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for them. A tailored solution would be out of the question. At a personal level,
belonging, being accepted and knowing who is in charge would dominate the
relationship.
3. In Phase III the world view is more complex. It is now internalized to become selfinitiating and service oriented. It is underpinned by values such as learning, listening
and trust. It is a collaborative perspective. Knowledge is understanding. The
community of practice is characterized by its ability to create new, innovative and
tailored solutions. Therefore relationships are based on trust, transparency and cooperation.
4. In Phase IV the world view has to do with global partnering through Interdependence.
Knowledge is practical global wisdom where relationships are co-partnering or cocreating an entirely new product and services. The community of practice functions
at the same level of creativity and transparency as it did in Phase III, but operates
globally and is most often virtual part of the time.
All four Phases are underpinned by different values. However, it is also important to
realize that people functioning at these levels do so tacitly - they are not fully conscious
of how it is they are doing what they do. The reason is that we function on habits and we
internalize our values and capabilities. We now have a technology that measure values
and can make these processes explicit for a person. When this occurs we are able to
choose to function at much higher levels. This is particularly critical for communities of
practice at Phase II wanting to move its capability to higher levels.
What we have in the modern global reality are teams needing to emphasize knowledge
creation that is a Phase III phenomenon. The difficulty is that at these levels of
functioning, the values of the team need to be made explicit. What is happening is that
different parts of organizations are operating at different levels, reducing their
performance to the lowest common denominator and hemorrhaging the bottom line. The
technology being introduced in the following case has the specific purpose of making the
values explicit, causing the relationships and knowledge processes also to become
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explicit. This gives leadership the leverage it needs to align and move the organization to
much higher levels of functioning and integrity. (Saint-Onge and Verna Allee, 2003.)
Evolution and Measurement
Seventeen years of research and development at the University of Santa Clara by a group
of international associates gave significant results in values measurement. First, the four
Phases were expanded into eight stages of evolution, as the diagram Phases and Stages
of Values Development illustrates. (See Hall-Tonna Values Map in the appendix.)
Within the 125 values, 29 are goal values. Goal values are future oriented and contain
human purpose. These values form a natural track or path, so that Human Dignity in
stage 6 is incomplete in its impact and understanding by a person if the Stage 1 and 2
values such as Self-Preservation and Security are not in place.
Phases and Stages of Values Development
Phase
Stage
I
1
I
2
II
3
II
4
III
5
III
6
Being Self
Human
Dignity
Ethics
Truth/
Wisdom
Global
Harmony
Synergy
Human
Rights
Innovation
Interdepe
ndence
Goal
Values
Self
Preservation
Security
Self Worth
Self
Competence
Integration
Means
Values
Food/Shelter
Economic
Profit
Courtesy
Achievement
Empathy
Affection
Friendship
Education
Certification
Search
/Meaning
IV
7
IV
8
There are also 96 means values that are underpinned by skills. In the Hall-Tonna format
approximately 1000 skills underpin 96 means values. Healthy personal development
requires that means values always be related to goal values in an effective combination.
Each of us has values, which are foundational, partly derived from our family or
experience of origin. When the family is healthy they keep us stable and secure for much
of our lives. We also have values that pull us from the future and drive our meaning
system. It is the basis of our vision or a corporate vision.
The diagram Phases and Stages of Values Development reveals an evolutionary or
developmental path underpinned by 125 values that fall into four Phases and eight stages
of development, and is the basis for measurement of gaps in priorities and world view.
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For example, in a conversation between two people, if one is functioning at stage 4 in the
above diagram and the other is functioning at stage 6 there will be a gap of two stages.
But the point is their values priorities will be different: the person at stage 4 is concerned
abut Self Competence whereas the person at stage 6 will have transcended that and is
concerned about Being Self and issues around Human Dignity.
Values Tracking and the Quality of the Community
From 1990-2002 Values Technology worked with several global organizations at a multilanguage global level. This case is a composite of our findings and approach, using the
values measures outlined above. In each of the organizations, we worked with teams with
the mandate to create a new team identity based on values consensus. All the employees
filled out values questionnaires to create a database. This was managed in several
languages, including Asian and European languages.
The measurement instrumentation used was the values metrics explained earlier; the
measurement used individual and group assessments. The comparative measurement is
the " Value Scale" illustrated below. As discussed above, the measurement consists of
the four Phases and eight Stages as follows:
Phase
Stage
I
1
I
2
II
3
II
4
III
5
III
6
IV
7
IV
8
What we have discovered by using this scale with global organizations during the last 10
years is that when two people are communicating with each other and there is a gap in
levels of more than two stages, the level of mutual understanding is about 20%. For
example if a person at stage 3, Phase II is talking to a person at Stage 5, Phase III (or
later) there can be as much as 80% loss of information. Basically their values and world
views are quite different. It happens in marriages, it happens in leadership teams and it
happens with customers. When this situation occurs in communities of practice,
transmission of knowledge and understanding at any stage can be less than 20% efficient.
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For example a person at stages 5/6 trying to solve a customer problem is going to view
the issues as requiring a tailored and collaborative response. Listening actively, openness
to new solutions, trust and transparency are going to be uppermost in the relationship.
On the other hand, if the customer is at stages 5/6 as we have described and the company
representative is at stages ¾, the experience will be quite different. Here task is first and
relationship and trust second. The person views solutions as packaged based on past
successful formulas of how things should be done. The person is not open to new
solutions and is not open to collaborating on new approaches. It is apple and oranges
communication. Both parties end up being confused, not realizing the differences are
developmental
both parties are coming from different values stages, world views and
ways of relating.
What we have also found by document scanning of advertising and similar forms of
communication such as form letters to stockholders is that similar problems of
communication gaps occur. Finally, we have conducted large surveys in most regions of
the world. The same problem is evident, except that language and cultural differences
exaggerate the gaps even more. All of this has led to a better understanding of what
values consensus means in complex organizations.
Conclusions: Conversation and Communities of Practice
A simple definition of values is that they are what drive, motivate and empower us
through the stories we tell. Values are the heart of what human conversation is about in
any social situation, but particularly in communities of practice. By making the values
priorities explicit and sharing those values with a partner or in a group make the
individuals involved aware of their similarities and differences. The following process
has evolved over the pat several years to leverage the similarities and bridge the
differences in order to maximize the quality of the team or group a given community of
practice.
Members of the group or community fill out online questionnaires as referred to
above, that are placed into a database.
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Coaching is carried out with members of the team, comparing personal profiles with
the group analysis of the whole community. A gap analysis is carried out so that the
team can see where the polarities and differences are. The purpose here is to make the
values conscious and explicit to everyone involved.
The group now comes together to share common values and differences. Because
they are all sharing out of a common set of 125 values a common language and focus
begins to develop. This results in a vision and purpose statement.
Part of the process is to guide the membership of the community of practice in
deciding what beliefs it needs in place to produce excellence. They choose from an
initial selection of 100 beliefs, also called paths of integration, illustrated in the table
Beliefs and Paths of Integration.
Beliefs and Paths of Integration
Business Processes
People Processes
1. Technology
15. Art/Design
2. Financial Services
16. Human Relations
3. Communications
17. Health Care
4. Management
18. Leadership
5. Research
19. Empowerment*
6. Hospitality Services
20. Emotional Intelligence
7. Manufacturing
21. Trust and Respect
8. Business Success
22. Partnering
9. Profitability
23. Teamwork
10. Sales
24. Learning Organization
11. Commercialization
25. Knowledge Management
12. Business/Sustainability
26. Pioneerism/Innovation
13. Operational Excellence
27. Personal success
14. Speed and Agility
28. Leisure Track
Brand Promise
29. Customer/Service
30. Customer Intimacy
31. Customer Passion*
32. Environment
33. Stewardship
34. Corporate citizenship
35. Social Consciousness
36. Quality
37. Safety
38. Confidentiality
39. Security
40. Partnering/alliances
41. Integrity/Ethics
42. Ethics Baseline
The values track, or paths of integration, vary with the organization. Tracks are a
string of values encompassing all eight stages of evolution or development as
illustrated in the three tracks below. However, our research demonstrates that there
were three tracks held in common by almost all Communities of Practice: Teamwork,
Learning Organization and the Customer. We note that the tracks are underpinned by
a selection from the 125 values illustrated below.
Teamwork
Security
Family
Self worth
Philosophy
Integration
Equality
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Construction/
New Order
Truth
Word
Support/Peer
Communication
Ownership
Membership
Institution
Decision/Initiation
Authority/Honesty
Sharing/listening/
Trust
17
Human dignity
Collaboration
Community/
Supportive
Complimentarity
Community/
Personalist
Synergy
Interdependence
Learning Organization
Security
Self Worth
Wonder/
Curiosity
Control/Order
Discipline
Competence
Confidence
Education
Self Actualization
Search/
Meaning/Hope
Limitation/
Acceptance
Knowledge
/Insight
Limitation/
Celebration
Education/Knowl
edge
Truth/Wisdom
Customer
Security
Wonder/
Curiosity
Family
Care/Nurture
Support/Peer
Friendship/
Belonging
Competence/
Confidence
Responsibility
Ownership
Service
Adaptability
Generosity/
Compassion
Sharing
/listening/trust
Human dignity
Presence
Mission/Objective
Mutual
Accountability
Stewardship
Truth
Word
Interdependence
If the community of practice is to function at a knowledge creation level of
performance it must be overall at Phase III or a minimal Stages 5/6. The measured
organization is an organization that views collaboration and partnership as a preferred
way of doing business. It is the minimal requirement for sustainability to be a
learning organization and an organization with high transparent ethical standards.
Coaching individuals and values development in the group make this possible.
Once the values have been made explicit in the manner explained above, consensus
becomes the recognition by the leadership group of what Integration Paths are
essential to make the community of practice successful. This involves looking at the
values definition in, for example, the team track and converting the values into
agendas, operation principles and expected behaviors of the community.
The values track is what allows the organization to convert the track, such as Team
work, into behaviors. Each value has a standard definition and a list of skills related
to it. The point of the exercise is that the tracks take into account the developmental
level of all the employees. Therefore it is not necessary for everyone in the team to be
functioning at Stage 5/6. But it is a requirement that leadership function at this level.
Also it is noted that these tracks, sometimes called business principles, have a
dynamic relationship. The endpoint for most of the organizations is customer service,
which is accomplished through empowered team members in a learning organization.
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Conclusion: Internal Branding
What has to occur in the long run is that all employee behavior needs to be minimally
aligned with the values in all the tracks
this is what creates a different conversation in
the organizaton around a single cultural identity. What this implies is that there are two or
three tracks in common for the whole organization, and some that are unique locally, as is
the case with communities of practice.
The more the employee behavior is aligned around the tracks and particularly the three
tracks of teamwork, learning and customer the greater the affinity to the customer. The
declared values of the company are more and more in alignment with the promise to the
customer. It is the ultimate win-win situation and what we call Internal Branding. It is
the natural end process of everything described in this paper.
In order for the lnew cultural identity of the organization to be activated, the following
processes also have to be in place:
The employeees by looking at their own values are able to see how they score on each of
the values tracks
what values are absent or weak and which ones are stong. Putting the
results into an annual action plan, reviewed by management in what was called the
development dialogue is the way the values tracks were behaviorized
that is to say
the employees and executives must walk the talk. This is carried through a program
where the employees clarify their roles so as to include their personal values. The result
of the clarification process is then integrated into development dialogue, which replaces
the old performance evaluation model.
19
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21
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